Scheduled overnight subway repairs are here to stay, but the agency has no intention of closing the entire system during the night hours for fixes, Joe Lhota said Sunday.
The MTA chairman appeared on the CATS Roundtable radio show on AM 970 and gave an update on the efforts to improve service. He told host John Catsimatidis that the FasTrack program has been effective in getting “the most intense work” done and will continue for the near future as the MTA works to curb delays and other problems with the system.
“You’re going to be seeing more of that going on. New Yorkers have gotten used to it,” he said.
Despite the push for the closures, Lhota reassured riders that there is no plan to close all stations at once overnight for repairs.
“I’ve been a New Yorker all my life. The last thing I want is to take away from New Yorkers, something that they’ve enjoyed, which is 24 hour a day service,” he said.
Last week, Lhota released a $836 million short-term plan to fix the subways that included hiring more maintenance workers, removing seats from some trains and cut response time by 30 minutes. His plan called for the city to pay for some of the proposal but Mayor Bill de Blasio has contended that the MTA needed to spend more of its own money.
Although the plan’s financials are still being worked, Lhota reassured Catsimatidis that he is not looking to raise fares and tolls.
“I don’t want this problem to be on the back of customers,” he said. “That’s not the fair way to do it.”
